On September 8, we left Roland Oklahoma and were on the road towards Dallas, TX. On our route, we passed through three Indian Reservations: Cherokee, Creek, and Choctaw. Our day started out with sunny, blue skies but later the black clouds began to form and soon we were in a rainstorm near Dallas. In addition to rain, we encountered lots of road construction. The highways were some of the most bumpy we have ever driven, so the road construction was much-needed.
After making it through and around Dallas, we continued on to Waco, TX. We checked into the I-35 RV Park at 4:30 PM. Not stopping for lunch allowed us to treat ourselves to dinner at Raising Canes….the first since we left AZ in June. Canes was located near the Baylor University Campus and the restaurant was filled with college students. Yes, we were the only “old” people seated. After dinner, we drove through the BU campus and downtown Waco. The rain started again and made it difficult to see anything clearly.
Our RV Park offers a free hot breakfast every morning from 7-9 AM. We got up early so we could enjoy the breakfast and meet up with some other RV patrons. Breakfast was delicious!
The reason for routing our trip to Waco was to visit the popular Magnolia Market. The market, owned by Chip and Joanna Gaines, is downtown in a renovated, historic cottonseed mill. We were warned that it would be busy and to expect people to be lined up outside the building. We were lucky and found a free parking spot in the lot behind the market and did not have to stand in line. However, there were so many people inside the store that it was hard to move about and see the merchandise. We maneuvered our way through the upper level to the larger lower level where there was more space to move. I picked out a T-shirt, a souvenir magnet, a candle, and a Yeti tumbler. When we returned to the upper level to the check out area, the line was extremely long. Our wait time was 20 – 30 minutes. Outside, we took some photos of the market grounds and checked out the food trucks lining the perimeter. The Silos Baking Co. was located next door and it was almost as crowded as the store! We walked in the front Bakery door and proceeded right out the side door. We didn’t need any pastries anyway!
I thought the market was very nice and had many nice amenities. There were restrooms in several different areas, water filling stations located around the property, and umbrellas to borrow in case of rain! Chip and Joanna Gaines have definitely built a business empire based on their Magnolia Brand!
Next, we stopped at the Waco Suspension Bridge. In front of the bridge are The Branding the Brazos art sculptures featuring three bronze cowboys on horseback and 25 cows depicting a Chisholm Trail Cattle drive.
The Waco Suspension Bridge was the first of its kind in the state, and when it was completed, it was the longest single-span suspension bridge west of the Mississippi! Up until the bridge was built, there was no other way to cross the river for eight hundred miles. So as you can imagine, it attracted people from all over to cross the bridge, even cattle along the Chisholm Trail. More than five million cattle and one million Mustang horses passed along the trail until it officially closed in 1885, which made the trail one of the greatest migrations of livestock in world history.
Our next stop was the Texas Ranger Museum. We paid our admission fee (Ken got a law enforcement discount) and found that we had arrived just in time for the video presentation. The video was a good history lesson on the Texas Rangers, but, we thought it was too long. We walked around viewing all the exhibits which consisted of lots of guns, knives, badges, etc. It really was a nice museum!
After walking around Waco in the heat and humidity, we were ready to return to our air-conditioned RV. Now we can add Waco TX to our list of places visited!